THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
This relatively new American play (it won Time magazine's best new play of 2012) arrives in Chichester after a blip. It was set to run at the Old Vic with the pairing of Dame Eileen Atkins and Timothée Chalamet in May 2020, but, ahem, events intervened.
It's Chichester's gain though, because Atkins is still the lead, Sebastian Croft (rising star of such TV hits as Heartstopper and Game of Thrones) is in support and Sir Richard Eyre directs this heartfelt tragi-comedy with his usual finesse.
Croft plays 21 yr old Leo who arrives without warning late one night at the Manhattan apartment of his 91 year old grandmother, Vera (Atkins), after having completed a momentous cross-continent cycle from Oregon. He unpacks both the heavily laden panniers of his bike and his family baggage, while trying to re-connect with Granma.
The scene is set for some cross generational miscommunication and, considering Vera is hard of hearing and Leo bursting with zealous impatience, there are some sparks. Vera is clever though, and the piece is great on that special bond grandparents can have with their grandchildren, both sharing their exasperation with the middle generation.
Atkins, now nearing 89, is still bursting with energy, and brings a touching frailty to the part of a woman who is increasingly agitated at not being able to recall her words or losing her thread in arguments. There are some lovely telling moments of intergenerational bafflement such as when she carefully folds his laundered lycra cycling gear or he displays a complete inability to get out of a suit jacket in a hurry, eventually pulling it over his head.
A classic '60s radical, Vera still dons a beret, invokes Marx (to the delight of Leo), and is missing her late husband who was something of a Cuba expert. Peter McKintosh's artfully cluttered set is the perfectly judged bourgeois bohemian lair, with ceiling high shelves packed with books.
In a gentle and undidactic way Herzog explores the differences between the grandmother's and grandson's radicalism, trying to find some common ground. Leo's sometime girlfriend Bec (Nell Barlow) drops by, and decries Vera's unfortunate use of language and her framing of arguments. Vera, ever indulgent, goes along with this. The young couples tortured non-relationship, though, exemplifies a generation that seems set on holding themselves to ridiculously unattainable standards, but Vera never pushes it.
On the other hand, Leo's own self-absorption, while he tries to set the world to rights, blithely ignores the fact he is sponging off a 90 year old and not sure whether he needs a job. His other love interest, Amanda (Elizabeth Chu), turns out to be an ambitious and effervescent Chinese American who quickly ends their tryst when she realizes he's mopey on China and 'communism'. Chu greatly lightens the mood as this firecracker.
Leo soon reveals the tragedy of what happened on the route cross country, and both attend to the funeral of her cross-the-hall neighbor, both events helping them mellow a little and bond.
In all, this is a thoughtful, warm, and insightful reminder of the need to do more to bridge those generational gaps whenever possible. It is great too to see Eileen Atkins still in her glory.
